The first time I attempted a Ludum Dare was in 2019, with LD44. I gave up after four hours and never attempted it again, until LD51, where I released Oasis Escape. It's a rushed mess, but at least I can say I completed a Ludum Dare.

Originally, I had no intention on participating. I didn't even take part in the theme slaughter, and the only poll I voted in was the final.

I'm eventually planning to release a commercial game which was conceived in 2017. Development on it has been slow for various reasons, mostly related to art. Often, I'll work on it for about three days and then get burned out, making only a tiny bit of progress. If it continues at this rate, it will probably take another decade to complete.

Last week, I was in the mood for working on my game. I noticed from checking Twitter that Ludum Dare 51 was coming up. With my game dev skills having improved since my last attempt,and with the addition of the Extra (which I could have used if I failed the Jam - fortunately I didn't), I decided to try it again for the first time since 2019. It was a hasty decision I made on the spot, but it ended up changing my perspective on game dev.

During The Event The strict 72-hour deadline forced me to focus on what was important. I have a habit of spending hours refactoring code or trying to finalize my art long before it's ready. Because of this, it ends up feeling like I made no progress. This time, I couldn't do that. If I tried, I would fail to meet the deadline, so I was motivated to resist.

Oasis Escape went through multiple art style changes. It was originally going to be about escaping from a lab. I tried multiple colour schemes, but they all ended up drab and boring, if not outright depressing. Eventually, I changed it to take place in a desert oasis. An alien escaping from a lab may have made more sense story-wise, but neither storytelling nor interior design are skills I'm currently focusing on.

Had I not had such a strict deadline, I would have probably tried to "polish" each style, then burn out before finding one that worked. The deadline forced me to strip everything down to the basics. In addition, I was forced to come up with new art instead of just using what I already had (not that I had much).

The result ended up influencing my main game. I liked the colour scheme of the water and sky better than what I already had, so I changed my main game to be a mixture of the two.

After The Event I learned a lot participating in LD51, but the thing that changed me the most is what happened after.

Normally, I work alone, in deep solitude, fantasizing about the one day where my game will finally be good enough to announce it.

Ludum Dare gave me the opportunity to get focused feedback. It's kind of like a focus group. I submit a collection of features and get feedback on them. I then use that feedback to figure out what works and what doesn't, and what I should and shouldn't implement in future projects. This gives me insight that I wouldn't have gotten otherwise. (Of course, I also return the favour to others participants by them feedback, but this post is primarily about what I've learned about my own games)

A common criticism of Oasis Escape is that the camera is too sensitive, so I'll be sure to set it lower in future projects. While this particular problem wouldn't have effected my main game too much (as it is a big project, it will eventually have sensitivity sliders), it was important for fine-tuning the defaults.

Someone pointed out that it looked like a 2000s Flash Game. While my main game will obviously be significantly more detailed, the goal since conception has always been to resemble modernized Flash animation. I failed on the "modernized" part, so I consider that a half-success.

I got a bit of feedback about the game's difficulty. Game developers in general are terrible at gauging the difficulty of their own games, so having people play my game after seeing it for the first time gave me insight I sorely needed. It letes me know what level of skill I should expect from first time players, and adjust the difficulty curve accordingly.

All in all, the past week has been quite an experience. I'm looking forward to Ludum Dare 52, where hopefully, I'll be able to make a good game.